I knew nothing about this going in, save for the setting and the accolades. By the time the first third of the movie was wrapping up - the first movement in the piece, so to speak - I was rather mesmerized by the pacing and the refusal to push the plot forward, instead giving us time to see the characters interact with one another and get to know them that way.
The jarring beginning of the second movement ,which skips all of the expected war movie overtures (things like basic training and deployment) and jumps straight into the end of the group's active service, again lets us know that this isn't really about the stuff that's happening but it's about what's happening to our people.
Same goes for the final movement - the idea of characters returning to where they started, a place where the world hasn't changed but they have, is certainly familiar, but again I think it's the pacing and length of time given here that makes it feel like more than just a catchy hook.
It's certainly another in the long run of Oscar winners that love downbeat, hard-to-watch movies. It has been quite striking going through the Best Picture winners alongside the top-grossing movies and seeing that while the Academy gravitated towards The Deer Hunter, people were flocking to Grease. It's been like that every year except for Rocky's double-victory, and as far as I can remember it's going to keep playing out the same way.
It's always fun to see Christopher Walken and his developing characteristics before he simply becomes "Christopher Walken" on screen (I'd guess that happens around Batman Returns?), and I'd never known the sad fate of John Cazale - being a part of an unlikely run of historically revered movies before succumbing to cancer before the release of The Deer Hunter.
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